Paying Off the Debt

This has absolutely nothing to do with finances, but was triggered by a Martha Stewart commercial I saw this morning. One of the newer slang phrases has been bothering me for quite a while and viewing this commercial this morning is to blame for this blog entry.

I can't stand to hear anyone use the phrase "my bad". Bad is not a noun, so it can't be yours! It just drives me crazy to hear people say that.

Sorry...just had to get that off of my chest. LOL!

Tonight was my Weight Watchers meeting and I was hoping to have my total weight loss be 20 pounds. I actually surpassed that goal and made it to 20.8!

It felt good last week to make my 10% weight loss goal and receive my keychain and so to get to 20 pounds this week has really motivated me to keep going.

I'm exercising every weekday and try to get a good outdoor walk in on the weekends as often as I can. My morning routine is either a "walk" with Leslie Sansone or some yoga.

DH's 401k is finally offering some different investment options. He's been contributing the maximum that the company will match half on for at least 13 years now and it just hasn't seemed to grow much.

He brought home literature last week that introduces 3 new plans. As soon as I saw a targeted fund I told him that's what we wanted. My IRA is in a Vanguard targeted fund and I love it. His will be with American Funds.

I am anxious to see if it does better than what he has now has been doing.

I signed up for the monthly pass for Weight Watchers ($39.95) the middle of July. At first I thought it was really silly to pay someone to weigh me each week, but I have to say that it is really working. So far I have lost 20 pounds. I enjoy the meetings and am meeting new friends. I find encouragement and support at the meetings. Knowing that someone is going to weigh me in each Monday night keeps me honest with counting points.

The main thing I like about Weight Watchers is that they have a maintenance program. You gradually add in points until you find the amount you can have each day that maintains your weight.

As soon as I get within a healthy weight range for me I'm going to apply for a term life insurance policy.

We received notice in our office this week that our medical insurance premiums are going up over 48% next year!!! We have a very small group and, because of the health problems I've had in the past year (which simply turned out to be an allergic reaction to blood pressure medicine!) they are increasing our payments. That amount just seems outrageous to me. It's not like my medical bills amounted to even $20,000! They were far below that.

So, we are now forced to shop for a different company or take a high deductible policy. Our budget for next year is already set and we only alloted for a 10% increase since the research we did indicated that was the average amount that PPOs would go up. So much for planning ahead!

I logged on to ING Direct's website 2 days ago and tried to send out a paper check payment to our local hardware store for home repair materials we bought last month. I've done this many times with no problem. Well, this time it kept telling me that it could not pay that business to please enter a different one. I don't want to pay a different business, I need to pay that one! I tried again yesterday, same response. So I've emailed them to find out what the problem is.

I don't want this problem to happen in a couple of weeks when I go to pay my car payment!

I came home from my Weight Watchers meeting tonight (more about that later!), to find that we have heat in the kitchen, FINALLY!!!! As some of you may remember, we went without heat in our kithcen all last winter and on a couple of occasions the cats' water froze! Brrrr!!!

Well, tonight was the culmination in that project that DH has been working on. It will be SO good tomorrow morning to come down to a warm kitchen and not have to heat it with the burners on the stove so that we can eat our breakfast.

Ahhh...the luxury of heat!

We had to take DD#1 to the ER today. She didn't tell us until this morning that she wrecked a friend's ATV yesterday afternoon. Her hand is all bruised and swollen and we were also worried about internal injuries. She is complaining of lower back pain also.

They did x-rays and found nothing broken. They said that she sprained her hand and neck. They did splint her hand so that it would have more support as it heals and told her to go back to work with light duty for the week.

She said the reason that she didn't tell us was because she knew we would make her go to the ER and she's worried that she might not be covered under our insurance since she's taken the semester off of college. DH had checked with human resources at the beginning of the semester and they assured him that she would still be covered. I guess we'll find out.

So far the visit cost us the $50 co-pay, but at least I can sleep tonight knowing that she's been checked over and is apparently okay.

I haven't been around much for months. I am still here and still paying down our debt. We will have the furniture paid off next month as long as the overtime continues like it has. Then it will be time to start on the car.

I decided to pay off the car since I checked the Blue Book price on it and it was nowhere near what I had thought it was. So since it is a depreciating item and the house isn't (well, depends on your take on the news lately!), I decided the car was the next debt to focus on.

I am in the middle of my accounting applications class and really enjoying it. Right now we're learning QuickBooks, which I use every day at work, so it's been a breeze. Next up is Turbo Tax. I'm really looking forward to that one.

Today we went car shopping with DS#2. He will be getting his license back soon since it's been 6 months since his last seizure. He has a job, but no car so he's looking for some wheels. It's very hard to find a car in his price range, but he's searching. He's found quite a few on a local site so we checked them out today. One of them is a strong possibility.

I found out a few weeks ago that I'm getting a nice merit raise next year, along with a cost of living raise. That will really help with the budget. I reworked my spreadsheet so that the items that are desperately under budgeted will have more funding.

We got quite a bit of home improvement work done this summer. That's why the net worth chart took a dip. We put on siding and a new porch roof. Now we're working on the kitchen addition.

Guess that's about it for now. Just wanted to drop in and say I'm still here. I hope to have more time to blog from here on out.

I got a call a few weeks ago from our phone company offering us unlimited long distance. It sounded like a good idea, especially since DS#3 is calling his girlfriend long distance now and racking up $60 to $80 in long distance phone bills every month (which he pays for, by the way).

It was in the middle of a billing cycle so when our bill was posted yesterday I checked it out, but am still not sure exactly what the monthly bill is going to run us. I'm a little nervous that this is going to break my budget.

Anyone else have unlimited long distance and have a ballpark figure of what I can expect each month? Ours is through Frontier.

I just finished my 2nd survey for Pinecone Research. It took forever for me to finally get chosen for a survey but now it seems like my name is in the queue for them. Small amounts earned, but every little bit helps. I'll probably put the money toward paying off the furniture since that's what I'm working toward right now.

Last week DH's clutch went out of his truck in the middle of an intersection. We had to have the truck towed to the repair shop. A week later & the repairs are done and the total came to over $375! Wasn't expecting that much so had to ask the shop to hold the check a couple of days until I could transfer that amount from my Electric Orange account to my local checking. This is when I wish Electric Orange offered checks.

We be reimbursed the amount of the towing bill from AAA. That will help a lot.

According to Quicken's Debt Reduction planner I will have 3 debts paid off in 3 years if I can continue to funnel as much money to them as I am now.

The furniture can be paid off in December 2007.

The smaller mortgage can be paid off in December 2008.

And the car loan can be paid off in December 2009.

That would be awesome! The only debt that would remain is the larger mortgage and that could be paid off in February 2013. Not bad at all!

Today I registered for a fall class through Distance Learning. I will be taking Accounting Applications which focuses on Quickbooks and Turbo Tax. I was registered for this class last semester but had to drop out because of my health problems. My health is back to normal finally so it's time to continue on towards a degree, slow as the process is.

The class begins August 27th. No more extra reading time!

I haven't been blogging much lately at all. Seems like life is too busy at the moment.

I did want to drop in though and say that my friend and I have done a good job this summer of finding free things for the kids to do to keep their summer from being a total washout.

Our church sponsors an AIA (Athletes in Action) baseball team and we've been going to their games. Free admission and you can buy dinner (hot dog, chips and drink) for $1.75 if you want.

Last night we took them to a Power Team event at a nearby school. They really enjoyed that.

Last weekend my friend and I chaperoned "Wordstock", a teen concert put on by our youth group. They had bands from around the area come and play and also had volleyball tournaments, pie and hot dog eating contests, and water balloon launching. We had the night shift so we were up all night. The kids had a great time and plan on making it a yearly event that will hopefully grow bigger. This year we had 65 attend.

So that's what I've been up to. Still saving money and still paying down debt. I am keeping my sidebar updated even if I don't have time to post anything.

Here is another good article on retirement funding by Suze Orman.

Another good site that I find helpful and informative is

CNN's Money 101. They have a series of 23 lessons ranging from setting financial goals to buying a home to 401(k)s.

MSN Money website has another good article today. It's titled The Five Minute Guide to Protecting Your Identity.

It lists some known threats to your identity and then gives 16 tips to protect yourself.

I hope everyone has a very happy and safe Fourth of July.

Suze Orman has us take a mid-year financial check-up in her

Yahoo Money Matters column this week. See how you've done so far this year!

For the first time in 7 years we will not be having a yard sale today. I am so thrilled! LOL! I guess I'd better give some background:

Each year on the 4th of July weekend our town has a Country Festival. The day starts off with a pancake breakfast at the Senior Center, followed by a parade and then festivities in the park all day. There are vendors selling all kinds of stuff and the community groups sell food to raise funds. There are games for the kids to play and rides.

This is the time that there are a LOT of yard sales in town. Since we are on a corner lot my mother has always felt our home to be the perfect location for her yard sale each year. So she would normally start bringing things down for this sale the night before and store everything on our large wrap-a-round porch. The day of the sale her and her friend would arrive at 6 a.m. and start setting up.

Our porch is always the finance center of the venture so people would be tramping through our yard all day (and usually the gardens too) and then onto the porch where they would often come look in our windows. (Our house is one of the old Victorians in town and people are always interested in seeing what it looks like inside.)

Our whole family has always dreaded this time of the year because we are just not yard sale people. But we felt obligated since we owed my parents money for DH's truck. Since the truck is now paid off we decided that this was the year to say no, we did not want the yard sale to be here. It's also perfect timing because DH has been replacing the porch roof and siding around that area. My mother was not happy, but decided to have the yard sale at her own home instead.

It's been such a relief to enjoy the weekend without strangers milling around in your yard that next year I'm determined we're not playing host either. We can actually enjoy our holiday weekend.

My apologies to all you yard sale lovers out there. I don't mind going to them, I just don't like hosting them.

It's time to set new goals for the year since I reached one of my goals and surpassed another already this year.

So, the new goals to reach by the end of 2007 are:

#4: get mortgage #1 balance below $6400
#5: pay off furniture

I just wrote the check for the mortgage payment and our total debt is now below the $70,000 mark! My goal was to accomplish this by the end of the year and I've done it 6 months early! Yeah!!!

I read an excellent article on the importance of Emergency Funds this morning on the MSN Money site:

Saving Your 'Emergency Fund' for the Real Thing

I have an appointment tonight to get my hair cut so I've been looking off and on all day for some styles that I like. I think I've finally settled on this one:

Right now I have a bob and I'm tired of having to pull my hair back all of the time to keep it out of my eyes. This style would take care of that problem and still be cool for the summer heat.

I should be knocking out Goal #3 next week. I'll be paying an extra $260 on mortgage #1 which will bring overall debt below the $70,000 mark.

I have to seriously sit down now and come up with a set of goals for the rest of 2007.

My IRA is in a Vanguard targeted fund and I'm very happy with its performance. I hadn't been able to access my account online since I had to reformat my computer last month. I made a call, got my access back and was pleased to see that instead of the $5400 I thought I had, I now have over $6000.

I also took the opportunity of their offer to stop receiving paper statements and instead have electronic delivery of messages. Because of this they will waive their annual service fee.

This Wednesday will be a fun-day for us. We've made plans to take our 2 youngest kids to an amusement park. We are going with another couple who are taking their 2.

We got a discount through Boy Scouts so that instead of well over $100 for 4 of us it only cost $60. We are planning on packing our food and eating at the picnic benches just outside the park, so that will save a bundle. The park is about 2 hours away so it will cost us a bit to drive there but I think we're doing pretty good at keeping expenses to a minimum.

With having so many kids, we are hardly ever able to do anything like this, so it will be a special treat.

I must invest in some good sunblocker though. My daughter (a redhead) and I burn extremely easily and I know we'll need to apply sunblock quite often throughout the day.

We got home today and found this update in our email:

We finally brought Syd home on Friday. She slept most of the way in the ambulance. She's now home and doing well.

We're having problems adjusting her formula so it's right for her, as the amount the hospital had prescribed overloads her tummy and makes her throw up. So we have cut her back to almost
half of what they wanted us to feed her and we will gradually work back up. Her little tummy just can't take the full amount yet as she has been weeks with little or nothing going into her,
except IV's. Because of her inhaling the vomit the night of the seizure it is
probably one of our biggest fears at this time.

Because of the damage done to her brain stem she is unable to regulate her own body temperature, and has to be watched closely for fevers and chills (yes I said chills, she had one the other night,
and her grandpa and I thought she was having a seizure but when we see her stats were okay we realized it had to just be a chill-her body temp had dropped to below 97 degrees).

The hospital was unwilling to send us home with oxygen and a pulsox(unsure of spelling) machine for her vitals. So we called her pediatrician, Dr. Tronetti, and he ordered them for us. She doesn't
need oxygen all the time and hasn't needed it at all since we've been home, but we just feel better knowing it's there and handy for us to use. It's always good to be able to watch her vitals so we can see if they're dipping or getting too high.

Her other set of grandparents are starting to learn to give her her meds and do the suctioning, the more people that can help with her the better for her and her parents. We want them to be able to go places and not be tied to the house all the time, especially since they have two sons to care for
also.

DS#2's settlement check for his car accident finally arrived this week. It's been almost 3 months since the accident. What a long, complicated process it has been.

First thing he did was pay off the car. The previous owner has been extremely patient while waiting for his money for a car that doesn't exist anymore. He included a $50 bonus for that reason.

Next, he paid us back for the money we loaned him for his tux for the prom and the car registration.

The last thing to pay for are the repairs he'd made to the car the day it was totalled. Thank goodness everyone has been willing to wait for their money!

He wants the remaining money put into an ING or Emigrant savings account for the summer while he's at camp so he can earn some decent interest on it. He'll use the money to buy another car when he has been seizure-free for 6 months and can get his driver's license back.

I am glad to have this all taken care of now. I don't like owing anyone money and felt responsible for the whole thing. It's been at the back of my mind constantly for 3 months.